stevel610 

This may be a basic question, but what is the difference between sprinters and climbers physical ability. More specifically why do sprinters get dropped quickly on hill stages?

pcates

they weigh 20lbs + more

Ryanf

Mountain stages. Mountains baby not hills. The sprinters take it a little easy because there not going to keep up. The sprinters are massive, heavy riders too. Tom is 180 pounds of lead. Tom is almost the size of a mountain. Sprinters are good at short sprints and long flat stages. They are just trying to get over the mountains.

oldspark

Not a chance-Thor Hushovd is 180 lbs and that's about as big as they get. I do believe there was one rider in the TDF that weighed over 200 lbs a year ago or so, don't know if any one is that big this year. Robbie is not very big at all.

ElJamoquio

And the average tour rider is ~150 lbs. Boonen is 180 lbs. Robbie is 5'7", should weigh ~130 lbs as a climber and actually does weigh about 150 lbs.

oldspark

My bad they do weigh 20lbs+.

airsoft510

Like people said body size. People are born with different sized bodies. Take for example one of my team mates can easy be around 140 lbs and he's slightly taller than me. He can keep that weight without much problem. With me however, i weigh 160, and its hard for me to get lower than 150, and I am shorter than he is.

Muscle mass can also have to do with it. I have the biggest thigh muscles on my team, but I can't climb as well as that 140lbs kid.

NotAsFat

Climbing is about power/weight ratio. Sprinting is about peak power output for 10-20 seconds. Time trialing is about sustained power for periods up to about 1 hr. Sprints and time trial courses are usually flat enough to make power/weight irrelevant.

bad timmy

plus they train for different things. a sprinter relies on power and acceleration, and a climber relies on aerobic capacity and endurance. the training is significantly different for these two types of effort (although both types of rider obviously need to work on all aspects of their cycling, just the emphasis is different).
their natural body composition (fast twitch/slow twitch muscle fibre ratio, body mass, aerobic capacity, cardiac capacity) would play a big part in what sort of rider they become - no matter how hard mcewen or boonen tried, they would never be pure climbers. just as rasmussen is never gonna have the speed and power of mcewen over a short sprint, no matter how many power cleans he does.

given that they're never going to compete with pure climbers in the mountains, it makes sense for sprinters to conserve as much energy as possible, just making sure they get through the mountain stages within the time limit, and get to the flat stages as fresh as possible.

dahoss2002

Power/ weight ratio.... That makes sense.....Takes alot more juice to shove a 180lb weight up a hill than a 155lb weight. Thats what I tell my 112 lb daughter as she accelerates away from my 205 lb arse on a decent hill. I tell her its "Physics" but she says," I'm just good!"

meb

Magnus Backstadt 210 lbs, and yes he was a sprinter.

Always wondered how much power output he must have had to propel that much weight into a final sprint with the likes of much smaller riders like Thor, Tom, and Robbie.

stevel610 

Thanks. I thought sprinters were supposed to be larger but Robbie M. looks like the peleton swishing past would blow him off the road. Genetics must play a part.

OrionKhan

In addition, on flats you're primarily working against wind resistance. The difference in frontal area between sprinters and climbers is relatively small and easier to overcome. For climbing, you're working against gravity. That's where the weight comes into play.

Do a search on the road cycling board for a more detailed scientific explanation.